The city of Florence announced Thursday an immediate ban on new short-stay private vacation rentals in the city's historic center.
The move is part of an effort to attract and keep full-time residents in one of Italy's most popular tourist destinations.
Mayor Dario Nardella called the ban "daring" but legally defensible.
"If we don't try to take disruptive political measures, nobody will do anything," Nardella said, referring to expectations that the Italian government would adopt a plan that so far only allows Venice to limit the number of days a property can be rented to 120. .
"We're tired of ads," Nardella said. "The problem has become structural."
Students from Italian cities including Florence, Milan and Rome have camped out in tents on campus to protest the lack of affordable housing.
At the same time, cities of art such as Florence and Venice have seen their housing stocks depleted by short-term rentals, defined as covering any period less than 30 days.
Nardella said the Florence government would not go after the 8,000 private short-term rentals already operating in the city's historic center, an area protected by UNESCO as a historical treasure that includes the Uffizi galleries and Ponte Vecchio. The city as a whole has around 11,000 short-term private rentals.
Instead, the city plans to offer a tax incentive to landlords who convert their places to short-term rentals.
Under the plan, property taxes on a second home would be canceled for up to three years, which could add up to thousands of euros in savings.
According to the criteria of The Trust Project
